I. Field
The present invention relates to wireless voice and data communication systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to novel and improved methods and apparatus for transmitting data traffic on a communication channel.
II. Background
The field of wireless communications has many applications including, e.g., cordless telephones, paging, wireless local loops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), Internet telephony, and satellite communication systems. A particularly important application is cellular telephone systems for mobile subscribers. (As used herein, the term “cellular” systems encompasses both cellular and personal communications services (PCS) frequencies.) Various over-the-air interfaces have been developed for such cellular telephone systems including, e.g., frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), and code division multiple access (CDMA). In connection therewith, various domestic and international standards have been established including, e.g., Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), Global System for Mobile (GSM), and Interim Standard 95 (IS-95). In particular, IS-95 and its derivatives, IS-95A, IS-95B, ANSI J-STD-008 (often referred to collectively herein as IS-95), and proposed high-data-rate systems for data, etc. are promulgated by the Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) and other well known standards bodies.
Cellular telephone systems configured in accordance with the use of the IS-95 standard employ CDMA signal processing techniques to provide highly efficient and robust cellular telephone service. Exemplary cellular telephone systems configured substantially in accordance with the use of the IS-95 standard are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,103,459 and 4,901,307, which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention and fully incorporated herein by reference. In CDMA systems, over-the-air power control is a vital issue. An exemplary method of power control in a CDMA system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,109, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and fully incorporated herein by reference.
A primary benefit of using a CDMA over-the-air interface is that communications are conducted over the same radio frequency (RF) band. For example, each remote subscriber unit (e.g., a cellular telephone, personal digital assistant (PDA), laptop connected to a cellular telephone, hands-free car kit, etc.) in a given cellular telephone system can communicate with the same base station by transmitting a reverse-link signal over the same 1.25 MHz of RF spectrum. Similarly, each base station in such a system can communicate with remote units by transmitting a forward-link signal over another 1.25 MHz of RF spectrum.
Transmitting signals over the same RF spectrum provides various benefits including, e.g., an increase in the frequency reuse of a cellular telephone system and the ability to conduct soft handoff between two or more base stations. Increased frequency reuse allows a greater number of calls to be conducted over a given amount of spectrum. Soft handoff is a robust method of transitioning a remote station from the coverage area of two or more base stations that involves simultaneously interfacing with two base stations. In contrast, hard handoff involves terminating the interface with a first base station before establishing the interface with a second base station. An exemplary method of performing soft handoff is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,261, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and fully incorporated herein by reference.
In conventional cellular telephone systems, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) (typically a telephone company) and a mobile switching center (MSC) communicate with one or more base station controllers (BSCs) over standardized E1 and/or T1 telephone lines (hereinafter referred to as E1/T1 lines). The BSCs communicate with base station transceiver subsystems (BTSs) (also referred to as either base stations or cell sites), and with each other, over a backhaul comprising E1/T1 lines. The BTSs communicate with remote units via RF signals sent over the air.
To provide increased capacity, the International Telecommunications Union recently requested the submission of proposed methods for providing high-rate data and high-quality speech services over wireless communication channels. The submissions describe so-called “third generation,” or “3G,” systems. An exemplary proposal, the cdma2000 ITU-R Radio Transmission Technology (RTT) Candidate Submission (referred to herein as cdma2000), was issued by the TIA. The standard for cdma2000 is given in draft versions of IS-2000 and has been approved by the TIA. The cdma2000 proposal is compatible with IS-95 systems in many ways. Another CDMA standard is the W-CDMA standard, as embodied in 3rd Generation Partnership Project “3GPP”, Document Nos. 3G TS 25.211, 3G TS 25.212, 3G TS 25.213, and 3G TS 25.214.
Given the growing demand for wireless data applications, the need for very efficient wireless data communication systems has become increasingly significant. The IS-95, cdma2000, and WCDMA standards are capable of transmitting both data traffic and voice traffic over the forward and reverse links. A method for transmitting data traffic in code channel frames of fixed size is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,773, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE FORMATTING OF DATA FOR TRANSMISSION,” assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein.
A significant difference between voice traffic services and data traffic services is the fact that the former imposes stringent maximum delay requirements. Typically, the overall one-way delay of speech traffic frames must be less than 100 msec. In contrast, the delay of data traffic frames can be permitted to vary in order to optimize the efficiency of the data communication system. Specifically, more efficient error correcting coding techniques, which require significantly larger delays than those that can be tolerated by voice traffic services, can be utilized. An exemplary efficient coding scheme for data is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,462, entitled “SOFT DECISION OUTPUT DECODER FOR DECODING CONVOLUTIONALLY ENCODED CODEWORDS,” filed Nov. 6, 1996, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein.
Another significant difference between voice traffic and data traffic is that voice traffic requires a fixed and common grade of service (GOS) for all users. Typically, for digital systems providing voice traffic services, this translates into a fixed and equal transmission rate for all users and a maximum tolerable error rate for the speech traffic frames. In contrast, because of the availability of retransmission protocols for data traffic services, the GOS can be different from user to user and can be varied in order to increase the overall efficiency of the data communication system. The GOS of a data traffic communication system is typically defined as the total delay incurred in the transfer of a predetermined amount of data.
Various protocols exist for transmitting packetized traffic over packet-switching networks so that information arrives at its intended destination. One such protocol is “The Internet Protocol,” RFC 791 (September, 1981). The internet protocol (IP) breaks up messages into packets, routes the packets from a sender to a destination, and reassembles the packets into the original messages at the destination. The IP protocol requires that each data packet begins with an IP header containing source and destination address fields that uniquely identifies host and destination computers. The transmission control protocol (TCP), promulgated in RFC 793 (September, 1981), is responsible for the reliable, in-order delivery of data from one application to another. The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a simpler protocol that is useful when the reliability mechanisms of TCP are not necessary. For voice traffic services over IP, the reliability mechanisms of TCP are not necessary because retransmission of voice packets is ineffective due to delay constraints. Hence, UDP is usually used to transmit voice traffic.
CDMA systems use pilot channels and multiple traffic channels to carry voice and data services to subscribers. In order to optimize system performance on the reverse link between remote station and base station, pilot channel energies and traffic channel energies are balanced. However, no balancing of channel energies on the forward link occurs since the base station transmits at a maximum power level appropriate to service all remote stations residing within the designated range of the base station.
Due to the demand for transmitting voice traffic and data traffic on a single carrier channel, there is a present need to develop optimal transmission strategies for the forward link.